What helps knee arthritis?…a healthy diet and exercise does!

A comment I sometimes hear in my clinic is “I can’t do anthing about it, it’s arthritis”. This is when I educate my patients about the common muscle imbalances that can be identified and addressed through therapeutic exercise and the treatment techniques that ease symptoms associated with the condition. While I know these techniques to be beneficial, I was recently reading about a study this week which reveals how a change in lifestyle can also make a difference.

A recent study was presented at a 2016 World Congress on Osteoarthritis. 454 overweight patients with knee Osteoarthritis were randonly subjected to one of three interventions 1. diet only 2.diet and exercise 3. exercise only. After 18 months the results revealed a significant reduction in inflamatory markers in the diet only and diet and exercise groups when compared to the exercise only group. In addition weight loss and reduction of these markers were also closely associated with improvements in knee function as measured by the WOMAC scale.

What does all this mean? Improving your diet and getting more active will not only make you you feel healther, it will improve how your knee functions and feels!